If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Please 'sit-a-long' with our MONTHLY4-hourZAZENKAI, netcast LIVE8am to noon Japan time Saturday morning (that is New York 7pm to 11pm, Los Angeles 4pm to 8pm (Friday night), London midnight to 4am and Paris 1am to 5am (early Saturday morning)) ... and visible at the following link during those times ...

... to be visible at the following link during those times andany time thereafter ...

LIVE ZAZENKAI NETCAST at GOOGLE+ IS HERE:CLICK ON THE TAB ON LOWER RIGHT FOR 'FULL SCREEN

FOR THOSE NOT ALREADY MEMBERS OF THE CIRCLE WHO WISH TO JOIN TO SIT LIVE WITH A CAMERA, INSTRUCTIONS are posted AT THIS LINK. WE ARE NOW LIMITED TO 10 INDIVIDUALS WITH CAMERAS, BUT ANY NUMBER CAN WATCH LIVE 'ONE WAY' AND SIT-A-LONG VIA THE ABOVE SCREEN. IF JOINING WITH CAMERA, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR MICROPHONE IS MUTED:

Our Zazenkai consists of our chanting the 'Heart Sutra' and the 'Identity of Relative and Absolute (Sandokai)' in English (please download our Chant Book at the link below), some full floor prostrations (please follow along with me ... or a simple Gassho can be substituted if you wish), a little talk by me ... and we close with the 'Metta Chant', followed at the end with the 'Verse of Atonement' and 'The Four Vows'. Oh, and lots and lots of Zazen and walkin' Kinhin in between!

Please download and print out the Chants we will recite at the following link (PDF):

I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU POSITION YOUR ZAFU ON THE FLOOR IN A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE NOT STARING DIRECTLY AT THE COMPUTER SCREEN, BUT CAN GLANCE OVER AND SEE THE SCREEN WHEN NECESSARY. YOUR ZAFU SHOULD ALSO BE IN A POSITION WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE COMPUTER SCREEN WHILE STANDING IN FRONT OF THE ZAFU FOR THE CEREMONIES, AND HAVE ROOM FOR BOWING AND KINHIN.

ALSO, REMEMBER TO SET YOUR COMPUTER (& SCREEN SAVER) SO THAT IT DOES NOT SHUT OFF DURING THE 4 HOURS.

I hope you will join us ... an open Zafu is waiting. When we drop all thought of 'here' 'there' 'now' 'then' ... we are sitting all together!

Giving is of prime importance in the Buddhist scheme of mental purification because it is the best weapon against greed (lobha), the first of the three unwholesome motivational roots (akusalamula). Greed is wrapt up with egoism and selfishness, since we hold our personalities and our possessions as "I" and "mine". Giving helps make egoism thaw: it is the antidote to cure the illness of egoism and greed. "Overcome the taint of greed and practice giving," exhorts the Devatasamyutta (S.i,18). …

Practically anything useful can be given as a gift. The Niddesa (ND.2, 523) gives a list of fourteen items that are fit to be given for charity. They are robes, almsfood, dwelling places, medicine and other requisites for the sick, food, drink, cloths … It is not necessary to have much to practice generosity, for one can give according to one's means. Gifts given from one's meager resources are considered very valuable.

But it is maintained in the suttas (A.iv,62) that alms should be given without any expectations (na sapekho danam deti). Nor should alms be given with attachment to the recipient. If one gives with the idea of accumulating things for later use, that is an inferior act of giving. If one gives with the hope of enjoying the result thereof after death, that is also an inferior act of giving. The only valid motive for giving should be the motive of adorning the mind, to rid the mind of the ugliness of greed and selfishness.

=================================================

From No Time to Lose, by Pema Chödrön

According to the teachings, there are three types of generosity, three ways of helping others by giving of ourselves.

The first kind of generosity is the giving of material things, such as food and shelter.

The second is "giving the gift of fearlessness." We help those who are afraid. If someone is scared of the dark, we give them a flashlight; if they're going through a fearful time, we comfort them; if they're having night terrors, we sleep next to them. This may sound easy, but it takes time and effort and care.

The third kind of generosity drives away the darkness of ignorance. This is "the gift of dharma" and is considered the most profound. Although no one can eliminate our ignorance but ourselves, nevertheless, through example and through teachings, we can inspire and support one another.

=================================================

A koan appearing in both the “Daishugyo” and “Kannon” fascicles of Shobogenzo, Case 89 in the Blue Cliff Record and Case 54 in the Book of Serenity:

Great Master Ungan Muju asks Great Master Shūitsu of Dōgozan,“What does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion [Kannon] do by using his limitlessly abundant hands and eyes?”

Dōgo says, “He is like a person in the night reaching back with a hand to grope for a pillow.”

Ungan says, “I understand. I understand.”

Dōgo says, “How do you understand?”

Ungan says, “The whole body is hands and eyes.”

Dōgo says, “Your words are nicely spoken. At the same time, yourexpression of the truth is just eighty or ninety percent of realization.”

Ungan says, “I am just like this. How about you, brother?”

Dōgo says, “The thoroughly realized body is hands and eyes.”

=================================================

From Shobogenzo “Bodaisatta-Shishobo”:

Beneficial action is skillfully to benefit all classes of sentient beings, that is, to care about their distant and near future, and to help them by using skillful means. In ancient times, someone helped a caged tortoise; another took care of an injured sparrow. They did not expect a reward; they were moved to do so only for the sake of beneficial action. Foolish people think that if they help others first, their own benefit will be lost; but this is not so. Beneficial action is an act of oneness, benefiting self and others together.

=================================================

From Shobogenzo-Zuimonki Book 2-2:

[According to Ejo] Dogen said, “When Eisai, the late Bishop, was abbot of the Kennin Monastery, a man came and said, ‘My family is very poor. We haven’t eaten for several days. The three of us—my wife, my son, and I—are starving to death. Please show your compassion and help us.’ At that time there was no clothing, food, or money in the monastery. Eisai could find no way to help. But he remembered the copper sheet intended for the halo of the Medicine Buddha figure. He got this out, broke off a portion of it, crushed it together, and gave it to the poor man, saying, ‘Please exchange this for food and satisfy your hunger.’ The man departed overjoyed.

The students were upset and said, ‘That copper was for the radiance of the Medicine Buddha’s image. Is it not a crime to give such sacred material to a layperson?’

“Eisai said, ‘yes, it is a crime. But think of the Buddha’s intention. He gave up his own flesh and bones and offered them to sentient beings. We would honor the Buddha’s intention even if we were to give the entire body of the Medicine Buddha to those who are starving now. We may fall into hell for this act. Still we should continue to save people from starvation.’

“Students nowadays should reflect on the great heart of our guiding master. Don’t forget this

-----------------------------------------------------------
Please take all my comments with a grain of salt - I am a novice priest and anything I say is to be taken with a good dose of skepticism - Shodo Yugen

Thank you Jundo for zazenkai and for conducting to so smoothly despite your cold I hope it gets better soon ( if you had worn your speedos you would have ended up with pneumonia. Thanks also to Dosho & all for the great questions and great answers. Thanks to all who sat & will sit.

Wisdom is empty without compassion.
Great compassion begins at home with ourselves.
Sitting wholeheartedly, not wasting too much time on the cushion, is self-compassion dana.
Then we can be just there for others in compassionate presence, seeing things just as they are.
In gratitude to all here for your practice.

"Know that the practice of zazen is the complete path of buddha-dharma and nothing can be compared to it....it is not the practice of one or two buddhas but all the buddha ancestors practice this way."
Dogen zenji in Bendowa

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
Henry David Thoreau, Walden